Cover crop

Last Sunday I sowed phacelia in the two main patches where the veges grow come spring. No germination as yet, so it will be a while before we see this sight again.

I see from reviewing my earlier posts (loving blog labels, very easy to locate notes to self!) that I had thought about sowing phacelia in the shaded strip leading up the front door. I had borage in there over summer, which was lovely but a bit big, so I must remember to order some more phacelia seed to sow along there in spring.

Phacelia

There were a few clumps of phacelia that grew too close to the bricked border so didn't get turned over in September. They began to flower this week! I will probably leave them alone as they are good at attracting bees and the like. I'm also thinking of planting them in a small shaded bed running along our house up to the front door, as apparently phacelia can handle shade and getting more bees in that section of the garden would be handy.

Digging in

Yesterday the phacelia was all dug into the ground. This was hard work - at least, it looked like hard work from where I was sitting, admiring it being done! We decided that next year I should do a better job of keeping it away from the edges of the beds - the brick edging is concreted in, and it slopes into the beds themselves, which makes it imposssible to dig close to the edges.

I did contribute as well, hoeing a few of the other beds and ripping out a lot of the weeds that were thriving in the greenhouse (the mini propagating house from Edenlite that is plonked down the end of the garden, and much loved by Bugsy as a good spot to watch birds from - she'll need it now that her phacelia forest is gone).

And STILL more rain

This week there was supposed to be several days in a row with no rain, including this weekend. But no, of course it rained today.

It's clear the weather is warming up though - and warm damp soil means the phacelia seems to have doubled in height this week! It REALLY needs to get dug in, but I guess it'll have to wait another week until it dries out.

Jungle cat

There's a patch of soil in the garden that was very dry and tired so I didn't plant anything there last spring. In autumn it got a healthy dose of compost then had the cover crop Phacelia planted in it. As soon as it stops raining and the ground drains a bit it'll be time to dig it in, but until then Bugsy is enjoying her jungle - it's a great spot for birdwatching.